Edward Jenner, English Microbiologist

Edward Jenner (1749-1823), English physician and pioneer of vaccination. Jenner coined the word vaccination to describe his use of cowpox inoculation to obtain immunity to smallpox. Folk tales from his native Gloucestershire suggested that dairy hands who had contracted the milder cowpox did not contract the deadlier small pox. Jenner experimented on a small boy by inoculating him with fluid obtained from the blister of a patient with cowpox. He repeated his experiments and in 1798 published his results. The practice of vaccinating against smallpox quickly spread.